AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jeff came to me via a hacker I’ve collaborated with on several projects, and who I trust not to land me in something questionable. The project sounded interesting enough, and the money was good.
He taps the paper in front of him. “We went through a number of people who all told us what we wanted was impossible.”
“Yeah, you have to take quite a lot of risks trying to get into various systems.”
He frowns. “Patience, too, I imagine.”
This makes me laugh. “Sometimes months of it.”
“And skill and experience.” His eyes narrow again.
I don’t want to tell him how I got all my experience hacking into banks, the National Archives, government databases and God knows where else.
“I’ve certainly dealt with a lot of different systems over the years.”
“You’re a very unusual man, Mr. Adramovich.” He looks out of the window of the café at the stream of people heading along the street and purses his lips. “I’m delighted to have you on our side, and I hope we can continue this relationship.”
I don’t take sides, that’s a dangerous game, but I’m happy to take on projects that are legit. And maybe he wouldn’t say he wanted to work with me if he knew more about what I’d seen. Who talks about “sides” anyway? Spooks in suits, that’s who: It’s like some Cold War espionage nonsense. Don’t they realize technology has changed all that?
I tilt my head diplomatically. “Of course. Let me know if you need anything more.”
After I head out onto the street the warmth of a Manhattan June day burns into my back and I lift my face to the sky. I’ve been working on this goddamn thing for months. A huge wedge of money, too. Thank fuck.
I’ve tried to be everything my father isn’t for so long: decent, straight with people. A good friend. A good man. I don’t always manage it. Sometimes I feel like I’ll explode with the effort. But here today, fighting bastards who are screwing over everyone and anyone on the side ... well, this makes it all worthwhile.
Parkour is what I need after this, burn off some energy. I take a deep breath, glance at my phone, and press Darren’s number.
I clock the guy following me when I’m halfway toward Coney Island station to catch the F train back toward town after a drink with the parkour guys, and Jesus, he’s not subtle. I’m exhausted, shaky, and in need of some food.Goddammit. I should have had something to eat in the bar. I scan the walls and the buildings, looking for a place to disappear, pulse thumping in my veins. Then I remember, the girders of the overpass all the way along the sidewalk by the station: I was thinking about the parkour possibilities when I came out here.
I slip behind a pillar and in seconds I’m up in the girders looking down on the sidewalk, waiting. I examine the cap pulled low over his face as he walks toward where I’m perched. He stops right under me, looking up and down the street.Fucking perfect.Too fucking stupid to look over his head. In a flash, I land on his back taking him down onto the sidewalk. I’m not a big guy but I know how to fight dirty. In seconds I have him immobilized, face down on the concrete.
“Why are you following me,” I grit out.
“Hey, hey! My face! My face! No sweaty, guy. No sweaty! Know nothing! Know nothing!” he shouts, and I look over my shoulder, but no one is paying any attention. No backup just about to jump me.
I twist his arm a bit more. “Who’s paying you?”
“Marty, Marty! I follow you. No harm! Yes, yes.”
Who the fuck is Marty?
“Hey! Hey! No harm.”
He is a goon, I can tell, no one gives up a name this fast, even if it isn’t a real one, because I’m damn sure no real names are ever used when anything nefarious is going on.
“What did they ask you to do?” I hiss.
“I follow you. That’s all! I promise. No threaten you! I good guy. Good guy.”
Ha fucking ha.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” He writhes in my grip, and I wrench his arm higher, which earns me a howl. Keeping his arm twisted, I bend over to pat down his pockets, looking for something, anything, that might tell me more, but the world swims and then he moves suddenly, kicking out a leg that I manage to jump over, but my hand must slacken for a fraction of a second because he’s out of my grasp and up and running and fuck I can run fast, but this guy …Jesus Christ. In seconds he’s out in the street, racing between the cars and narrowly avoids getting ploughed by a taxi. A bus screeches to a halt with a blare of horns, and he disappears behind it and I’m seconds behind him but he’s up the street veering off into a parking lot and I lose sight of him for a second. When I get through the parking lot to the street beyond, he’s disappeared.Goddammit.
I stand in the street, watching, waiting, feeling sick. But I don’t think he’s going to appear from anywhere. I don’t want to worry Janus, but I need to tell him about this. I pull out my phone and blow out a long shaky breath, suck another one back in and turn my phone over in my hand.
What’s Janus going to do?The little voice in my head pipes up. Give me a lecture about security, no doubt. Mess around with some high-tech security system on my apartment that I could probably organize myself. Insist on a bodyguard: I don’t want to put some ex-marine’s life in danger. I study the quiet buildings in the street. Do I need to tell him? Why is being followed from parkour any different from someone turning up and asking questions in the first place? And I can look after myself—living on the street was way more dangerous than being followed by some idiot who gets noticed.
If this is those people that hacked into Janus’s company, then they’ve worked out what I look like, but how? There’s no pictures of me on the internet, I’m not anywhere. I’ve made sure of it. And I would have expected a group of hackers to be way more professional than this. Trailing after me on the street using some useless guy … maybe they’re worried that Jo and I still have access to their system.
